Brewers unveil big plans for scoreboard

The Brewers will install a new, high-definition scoreboard before the start of the 2011 season that will be the third-largest in Major League Baseball, at 5,940 sq. ft.

There are only two larger boards in baseball: Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium has an 8,900 sq. ft. scoreboard, and Phoenix’s Chase Field has a scoreboard that covers 6,200 sq. ft.

For comparison, the current video board at Miller Park is 1,296 sq. ft. The matrix board underneath it is 2,432 sq. ft.

In an announcement, the Brewers trumpeted their board as only the third “true 1080 display” in baseball and only the fifth in any major U.S. sports venue. The others in MLB are at Yankee Stadium and Target Field, the new home of the Twins. The NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks also have true 1080 displays.

“When you factor in the overall size and resolution of the new display, we believe this will be the finest video board in Major League Baseball,” Brewers Executive Vice President of Business Operations Rick Schlesinger said in the club’s statement. “This is going to be a spectacular addition to the fan experience at Miller Park in 2011.”

Audio consultant Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon and Williams is working with the Brewers and the Southeast Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District through the process in developing the new scoreboard. Mortenson Construction, southeastern Wisconsin’s largest builder, is serving as general contractor for the project.

The scoreboard project also will include renovations and upgrades to portions of the Miller Park sound system, the Brewers said.

Facts and figures:

OVERALL DIMENSIONS

Overall physical dimensions of the outfield scoreboard structure will be approximately 105 feet high by high by 168 feet wide (includes signature Miller Park signage at top).

HIGH DEFINITION VIDEO DISPLAY

– Video screen will be one of only three true 1080 HD resolution screens in Major League Baseball and the largest of the three (Yankees and Twins are the others)

– Approximate dimensions of the HD display are 54 feet high by 110 feet wide

– 5,940 sq. feet of active area will make it the third largest in Major League Baseball and one of the largest HD LED displays in the world

– The new video display will have nearly 18 times the resolution (in terms of number of pixels) of the existing display

– Physically, the new video display will be nearly fivetimes larger than the existing video display

– It would take approximately 1,500 37″ diagonal flat panel televisions to fill the area of the new LED video display

– In comparison to consumer televisions, this display would be called out as a 1,470″ (diagonal) screen

– Approximately 24,000 feet (4.6 miles) of wiring will deliver power and data within the large video display

– Video display will weigh approximately 74,000 lbs. (37 tons) not including static signage or structure.

– Daktronics HD-15 technology uses state of the art LED (light emitting diode) technology, providing superior brightness in direct sunlight, with the capability to show up to 4.4 trillion shades of color

I agree with the other posters here – why bother paying for this when you can’t show replays of close plays on the big boards anyway, for fear of offending the (increasingly fallible) umpires? The matrix board (in black and white) has enough problems with blown-out bulbs and all that, and still gets hit by batted balls sometimes too! Why get something bigger and MORE complex that will short out and leave us with NO scoreboard halfway through a game? Will it be bright enough to see in bright sunshine, which will hit it directly during day games? Won’t it be too bright then at night and blind all of us fans sitting in the stands? Can it survive the brutal cold of Wisconsin winters without losing resolution? I think they ought to think this one over a little more. Unless, of course, someone is DONATING it to Miller Park, in which case, go right ahead.

They have been planning this for years and should have been done already but with money issues they haven’t done it. There isn’t a lot you can do when the coaches and players they select fail miserably as they have. Its almost better they don’t have the extra 10 million to blow on an aged reliever or mediocre starter on the tail end of their major league career. I’d rather see more talented young affordable players anyway.

Why not do something about the db level of sound? Like most stadiums and arenas, a guy can’t even sit down and enjoy BP and fielding w/o needing ear plugs. It’s really uncomfortable with all that racket blaring at you. Makes one want to get a vuvuzela just to compete. IMHO

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